Promises Kept
by Artemesia
Summary: A promise of love from years ago is pledged into an eternal bond. RikaTerada.


Author's Note: Written in response to the 'Communication' challenge at the TsukimineShrine LJ community. Decided to give our poor principal characters a break and try my hand at another schoolgirl in love! As usual, Cardcaptor Sakura is owned by CLAMP.  
  
"Promises Kept"  
  
In the silvery moonlight, his love looked like an angel.  
  
The only remnant of her girlhood was in the soft, innocent lines of her face, the gentleness of her voice. But the woman she had grown into in the eight years since they met – Kami-sama, she was too beautiful for words. And by some miracle, she still loved him. Still wore his ring, resized numerous times, on her left hand.  
  
Her silky cheek curved perfectly into the palm of his hand, and she melted into the embrace. Beneath the full moon and the sakura trees, their buds shimmering in the pale celestial light, they were alone. This moment, this embrace, this night was theirs.  
  
For the first time, they acknowledged their love without fear of being seen.  
  
Her blood sang with warmth and longing as he reached out to embrace her, towering over her, protecting her, though she was scarcely as small as she had been once. Her right hand cinched tight around his waist, her left hand reached up to caress his face, which still looked so young. The diamond on her finger sparkled like a star as it caught the moonlight overhead.  
  
Strong fingers clasped about her left hand, tracing over shining stone. He had thought about buying a new ring for tonight, but this tiny ring, this circle of gold and precious stone, had been the one visible emblem of their love for so long. How often had she told him that when she missed him, when she couldn't be with him, the sight of that ring had encouraged her spirit?  
  
Still, he found himself sliding the ring on her finger, drawing a confused, worried glance from his beloved's eyes. He opened his mouth to speak but the words he meant to say seemed flimsy as rice paper. Instead, he sank to one knee before her, the ring held out in an upturned, slightly trembling hand.  
  
She had been imagining this day since she was a girl but her heart still beat wildly in her chest as tears sprang to her eyes. He looked so small and helpless there before her, holding out nothing but a piece of jewelry and an eternal promise to love her. Her heart and soul were already his, and had been since the moment he stepped into that classroom. Her love for him, at the beginning, had perhaps been infatuation, a mere crush. And yet weeks later it was so much more. It was patient, kind; it was far wiser than her mere ten years.  
  
That tender love had sustained them thus far – through his mother's lingering illness and slow recovery, through her sometimes arduous high school years and most recently the exams which had left her, many times, weeping with exhaustion and frustration in his arms. It had grown along with the two of them from something from the pages of a shoujo manga to the very reality of their lives, the deft yet strong threads that kept them anchored to the universe and each other. And so beneath the stars and budding branches he wanted to affirm that love, to know that she chose to marry him not out of an outdated promise but because she loved him at that very moment.  
  
He trembled slightly as he tried again to speak, and to his surprise found her delicate fingers on her lips, warmth and compassion shining in her tear- filled eyes. Her left hand extended in front of him, she smiled, beaming, her face glowing so brightly with love the moon dimmed to a pale ember and nodded.  
  
He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, and with still- shaking fingers slid the ring back onto her finger. Delicate fingers caressed his face, her hands embracing his, as he saw the tears sliding down her cheeks like drops of silver. Carefully, he wiped the tears away as he stood on trembling knees and lifted his beautiful angel into the air, her joyous laughter catching the night breeze, only stopping when their lips joined, not wanting to ever let go. 


End file.
